How to interview potential customers (CustDev)

Most founders build a product first and only then find out whether anyone needs it. CustDev (customer development) flips that order: first you talk to future customers, and only then do you decide what to build. The idea was put forward by Stanford lecturer Steve Blank, and his main thesis goes like this: there are no facts inside the building; you have to get out and look for them among people.

Y Combinator considers this so important that its partners tell founders: you have only two jobs — build the product and talk to users. Here's how to do it right.

The first rule: talk about the other person's life, not about your idea. Founders usually start describing how wonderful their product is and immediately get a polite “sounds great.” That gives you no information. The principle comes from Rob Fitzpatrick's book “The Mom Test”: even if your own mom praises an idea, that doesn't mean it has been validated.

The second rule: ask about the past, not the future. The question “Would you use this?” invites a nice but worthless answer. The prompt “Tell me about the last time you ran into this problem” makes a person recall a specific situation. Past behavior predicts the future better than stated intentions.

The third rule: listen more and take notes. Keep your own talking to a minimum and add follow-up questions like “And why was that hard?”

Eric Migicovsky, a YC partner and the founder of Pebble, suggests basic questions for any interview. What is the hardest thing about this for you? Tell me about the last time you ran into it. Why was it hard? What have you already tried to solve the problem? What don't you like about the solutions you use?

Now a real-life example. In 2009, Airbnb, which had just gotten into Y Combinator, was struggling to take off. Paul Graham advised the founders not to sit behind their computers but to go to their users. Demand was highest in New York, so that's where Brian Chesky and Joe Gebbia went, to meet hosts in person. It turned out the main problem was bad photos: from the hosts' pictures, there was no way to tell what you were paying for. The founders rented a professional camera and photographed the apartments themselves. The company's revenue in New York doubled. It worked in other cities too. The same trip also taught them about the hosts themselves. They would never have found any of these problems by looking at spreadsheets.

A final tip: talk to real potential customers, not to friends and family — they tend to support you rather than tell you the truth.

Sources:

1. Y Combinator Startup School — Eric Migicovsky, How to Talk to Users
2. Rob Fitzpatrick — The Mom Test
3. Steve Blank — The Customer Development Manifesto
4. Y Combinator, Paul Graham — The Airbnbs
5. Fast Company — Airbnb: Most Innovative Companies